Police Make Strides In London Manhunt

July 13, 2005|By Christine Spolar and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune

LONDON — Forensic experts believe some of the men linked to the explosions may have died during the attacks.

Police and forensic experts Tuesday searched homes and cars north of London for evidence linking four men, captured on closed-circuit TV at a downtown train station, to four coordinated bomb blasts last week on the capital's subway and a bus.

Police believe that at least three of the men, and perhaps all four, may have died in the explosions Thursday. They based that conclusion on personal papers bearing the suspects' names and other evidence found in the wreckage. The new evidence raised fears that London may have suffered suicide bombings for the first time.

Police officials Tuesday would not openly discuss that possibility and offered few personal details about the suspects. They did not name the men.

Late Tuesday, British newspapers and broadcast news media, citing police sources, described the men as Britons of Pakistani descent. The youngest was 19, according to reports in Wednesday's papers.

One man was arrested Tuesday in the West Yorkshire area, about 185 miles north of London, in connection with the raids and would be transferred to Scotland Yard for questioning, officials said.

At least 52 people were killed in the explosions Thursday, and recovery operations still are going on. Police have said they believe the attacks are linked to groups affiliated with the radical Islamic network al-Qaida.

The homes of about 500 people in Leeds, a city of 715,000 with tight-knit Arab and Pakistani communities, were cordoned off Tuesday during an intense police hunt that began at dawn and lasted into the night. Police said they had six search warrants, obtained under the British terrorism act, for the raids.

Homes of three of the four suspects were searched, police said.

In the afternoon, police evacuated a train station in Luton, 30 miles north of London, to search a car in an adjoining parking lot for possible explosives.

Investigators think the four men arrived at the Luton station early Thursday and then traveled by train to London.

The high-visibility raids prompted police to release the most detailed account yet of its investigation into the worst-ever terror attack in central London.

Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, said searches of the blast sites and, in particular, a review of about 2,500 closed-circuit surveillance tapes in the city provided breakthroughs.

Video recorded on the day of the blasts showed all four men at King's Cross station about 20 minutes before the blasts began, Clarke said. The four were carrying identical rucksacks, according to reports in the British news media.

"The investigation quite early led us to have concerns about the movements and activities of four men, three of whom came from the West Yorkshire area," Clarke said.

Documents bearing the names of three of the four men were found near seats left in the wreckage of three explosions, Clarke said.

According to Clark, property of one suspect was found on the No. 30 bus that exploded in Tavistock Square. Property of another was found at the explosion near the Aldgate subway station. Property of a third man was found at bomb blasts near the Aldgate station and near the Edgware Road station.

The recovery of documents bearing the men's names was significant evidence, but it alone would not prove the men's presence at the time of the blasts, they said. The subway blasts occurred within a minute of each other at about 8:50 a.m. The bus exploded 57 minutes later.

One of the men was reported missing by his family about 10 p.m. Thursday, according to the police statement. The missing man was the one whose property was on the No. 30 bus, Clarke said.

Forensic evidence is being examined to determine if all four men died in the blasts. Evidence is "very strong" that one man died in the Aldgate blast, he said.

The revelations stunned Leeds. For much of the day, investigators focused on two outlying areas of the city: Beeston and Hyde Park, where working-class families, students and immigrants live.

Some police officers worried about a possible backlash against Muslims, who make up 15 percent of the population in Leeds. Muslim leaders worried as well, saying the police alerted them to the raids about six hours into the operation.

"It is shocking to hear that the criminals came from Leeds. The main concern is that people understand that this is a crime committed by individuals, it is not a crime committed by the Islamic community," said Zaher Birawi, chairman of the Leeds Grand Mosque. *